


No Light, No Light

by classybut_trashy



Category: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (TV)
Genre: F/M, anyway, i didnt mean for the ending to happen this way but shit happens ya know?, kinda embarrassed that im even posting this but oh well, oh man, this is not good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22239898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/classybut_trashy/pseuds/classybut_trashy
Summary: Deet is overcome by the darkening and when Rian tries to go after her he ends up taking on some of the darkening himself and ends up being consumed by the darkening while she gets better and she tries to help him but he's too far gone and she can only look on in horror as he succumbs to the blight and perishes. D:aw sad anyway theres many plot holes in this story but idk man i just wanna be lazy rn life is short im posting my shitty stories whether god wants me to or not :)
Relationships: Deet/Rian (Dark Crystal)
Kudos: 5





	No Light, No Light

The last thing she remembered was purple lightning bursting towards her. Deet had glanced down and saw the purple veins in her fingers seemed to glow brighter and suddenly she had known what her role in all of this was. In all the commotion she calmly stepped forward and the lightning instantly changed direction, like it was drawn to her. The instant the light collided with her she felt the most intense pain she’d ever experienced. Like every molecule in her body was being torn apart again and again and again. Deet heard the screams and shouts of the Gelflings behind her but all her energy was being focused towards one goal: destroying the Skeksis. They’d caused enough damage, and it was time for them to have a taste of their own medicine.

And suddenly, as quickly as the lightning had sprung forth, it was gone. All into Deet, and she found herself panting on the ground, her hands splayed before her while the purple veins quickly traveled up her hands and arms to her face. She heard the shocked cries from the Skeksis and the gasps from the Gelflings, but all she could think about was the ice that seemed to seep through every vein of her body. She felt slightly feverish, but managed to stand and staring directly at the emperor, snarled, “Get away from my friends!”

From her fingertips the purple lightning exploded once again, now aimed directly at SkekLach who after a moment, burst into a pile of goo and pus. Shrieks and cries came from the Skeksis, but the Gelfling sensed a change in the tide. With the death of SkekLach, the war seemed a bit more feasible, and hope was less fragile. The Skeksis called to retreat back at the Castle of the Crystal, and cheers erupted around Deet as the Gelfling celebrated their momentary victory.

Deet wanted to join in the celebration, but one glance down at her hands told her she needed to leave. The Darkening was spreading quickly through her, and she wasn’t sure how long she could keep it contained inside her. With one last glimpse of her friends, she hurried through the crowd and into the woods.

Away from the throng, Deet took stock of her situation. It wasn’t safe to return to Stone-in-the-Wood, or really any other village in Thra. She was as much a danger to the Skeksis as she was to Gelfling. She looked down at the ground, saw that already that her blight was seeping into the soil, wilting plants and trees before her feet. She had to keep moving, to put as much distance between her and other living things as possible. Tears welled up in her eyes. For as long as she could remember, animals had been her closest friends. In Grot she had cared for so many creatures that to think of her life without them was almost too much to bear.

A snap of twigs behind her broke her out of her dwam. She turned and saw Rian. Her heart skipped a beat, and she wanted to call out to him, to warn him of the danger they were in. But he could probably tell, the trees around her were withering and drooping and the wind seemed to pick up and whirl her hair around her. Instead, she gazed into his eyes, his sky blue eyes, and committed everything about him to her memory, and then turning around and walked away, tears falling freely from her eyes, praying to Thra that he wouldn’t follow her.

\---

Rian gaped as the branches around Deet seemed to close up after her, creating a vast unsurmountable briar between them. The pulsating purple veins he had seen in Deet’s face were all around him, in the branches, the ferns, even the soil beneath his feet. 

Drawing his sword, he began to cut through the dried branches before him. It was difficult to make any progress, but finally after an hour or so he had reached the end of the thicket and found himself in an enormous field of dead grass. The trees surrounding the meadow were slowly being stricken with the Blight, and he watched as they toppled over and disintegrated into the ground. He stepped forward, feeling the dried grass crunch beneath his boots, and silently sheathed his sword.

In the middle of the meadow he finally found her. Deet was lying on her back, arms gently folded over her chest and shining purple eyes fixed on the sky, not even flinching when he delicately smoothed her hair behind her ear, and slid her head onto his lap. Rian gazed down at Deet, stroking her cheek and watching the purple veins glisten through her verdant skin. 

He wasn’t quite sure where he was. The path back was long and still overgrown with brambles, it would be difficult to return with more people, even if he could have found his way again.

_ You are the night time fear _

Rian sat there until twilight. He thought about carrying her back to Stone-in-the-Wood, but he couldn’t even lift her up. It was like she had miles and miles of roots below her, keeping her in place. Finally, he stirred when the third brother began to dip below the horizon and he realized he would need to find somewhere to sleep before it got dark. His first thought was the forest, since it would offer him some protection from the elements, but he didn’t want to be so far away from Deet in case something happened. Eventually Rian decided to wrap himself in his cloak and curl up on the ground next to Deet. He took her hand, and as night began to fall, he started to half sing/half hum an old Stonewood lullaby his mother used to sing to him when he was small. In retrospect, the song was much darker than he had remembered, but the tune was simple and sounded sweet even if the song was about the end of the world.

He reached the end of the song and sighed, looking at Deet’s still form. Her eyes were still open, and he saw the stars reflected there. Her chest rose and fell almost imperceptibly, and was the only comfort Rian could find in the whole situation. Deet was still alive. That much he was certain. How he could possibly purge her of the Darkening was another matter. He stroked her hand with his thumb, lost in thought, but none of his healing experience would even begin to cover the damage that had been done to her. He looked back at her, worry lines forming on his forehead.  _ I won’t let her die _ he thought, before kissing her gently on the lips and then lying back down under his cloak.  _ I promise. _

_ \--- _

Deet had been lying in gloom, feeling the Darkening coursing through her and pinning her to the ground. She wasn’t quite sure where she was, or how she had ended up on her back in the middle of a dead field, with a warm constant breathing in her ear. Any movement resulted in a dizzying effect that left her vision blurry and her head pounding. The sun was just barely over the rim of the gnarled trees. Shifting her head slightly to the right, she found the source of the breathing. Rian was curled up under his cloak, shivering slightly in the morning chill. From his lips she noticed the unmistakable sign of the Darkening; purple veins glowing from his mouth all the way down to his hands and around his eyes. Deet shivered, and looked down at herself. The deep vessels that had marred her body just the day before were faded, seeming to lose their light and receding up her arms and legs to her face.

_ You are the morning when it's clear _

Deet sat up, the dizziness was slowly leaving her and she found that she could move freely without fearing a blackout. 

“Wake up Rian!” she said, shaking his shoulder urgently. He groaned and rolled onto his back, eyes now open and facing the sky. The bright blue that she had so adored was now milky, all the fiery light that Rian possessed now drained out of him by the Blight. 

With renewed strength Deet shook him harder, desperation overcoming her. Rian made no move to acknowledge her. He was still breathing, she noticed, and his heartbeat was strong, when she laid her head upon his chest. She lay there, eyes bright with tears, breathing him in. Would he die? She wasn’t sure how to get back to Stone-in-the-Wood to get help. Oh if only Brea were here! Surely she would have a plan. Or Gurjin. He would be a comfort at least, even if he wasn’t terribly bright.

But the question that seemed to linger on the fringes of Deet’s mind was what had happened to Rian? Surely the Darkening couldn’t have acted this fast. Even though the trees and grass around her were shriveled and dead, the Blight hadn’t yet begun to affect the insects that fluttered around her, or the animals that meandered through the meadow. Surely the Gelfling had more tolerance to the Blight than a Fizzgig?

_ When it's over you're the start _

“Oh,” breathed Deet.  _ Brave Rian _ . Of course he would have come after her. Whatever had happened after he found her, she might never know, but Rian was now carrying the Darkening within him. That much was obvious. Even now, Deet’s arms and legs were now clear of the sickly purple veins, and Rian’s body was growing ever more stricken.

The tears in Deet’s eyes began to fall, leaving glistening tracks down Rian’s leather armor. Rian, her best friend, someone she loved with all her heart. _ It should have been me _ , Deet thought.  _ Even with all his bravery, I still have the power from the Sanctuary Tree. It should have been me lying here. At least I might have had a chance to stop it.  _

The suns were high and hot in the sky when Deet returned from her reverie. She raised her head from Rian’s chest and realized that only half of his body was still above ground. As though the very soil was trying to swallow him up. Try as she might, he would not be dislodged from his spot in the meadow. The veins were traveling from his body into the ground, glowing brighter than they ever had for her. As she stared in abject horror, the dirt beneath him shifted and his ankle and hands slid under, the earth returning to its original state as though nothing had happened.

Deet screamed, a primal, desperate cry that seemed to go on for eternity, and with renewed strength began to pull him from the dirt. At first, it seemed promising, he shifted in her direction when she yanked at his shoulders, but it seemed that he was rooted to the spot. The ground shuddered again and his hands and feet disappeared as well. After 20 minutes of anguished scrabbling, Deet forced herself to give up. Her fingers were bleeding and her hair had become plastered to her forehead with sweat. Her efforts were to no avail. It seemed that once Rian sank below the surface, his body ceased to be a body. No matter how much digging Deet did, the fact remained that he was dissolving into the earth. Wherever his body had become submerged by the soil it promptly disappeared. 

‘NO!” Deet screamed, pounding on the soil and letting her tears fall hot and fast onto Rian’s chest. “NO! I won’t let you go, you’re coming back with me!” Deet sobbed, grasping at his tunic as he sunk lower.

Deet wept, gently stroking Rian’s cheek and brushing his hair away from his face. His eyes were almost completely white, the blazing sky blue completely gone. The ground shuddered once more and now all that was left was his face. Deet trembled, tracing the curve of his lips, his cheekbones. This was the last of him, soon he would be just a memory, just a reminder of what the Skeksis were capable of, their arrogance and greed that had cost Deet her home and her friends.

Softly, softly, she leaned down and brushed Rian’s lips with her own. They parted, and for just a moment Deet thought she heard him say her name. No more than a whisper, just enough that she could feel his breath on her cheek before he finally sank into the earth, never to be seen again.

_ You're my head, you're my heart _

**Author's Note:**

> hey thanks for toughing it out to the end, what did u think? let me know (but in a nice way) how u would have made it better. thanks ! 
> 
> (p.s. yeah so i started writing this and thought that No Light, No Light by Florence + the Machine kinda fit nicely so maybe have a listen to it before/after u read this. i thought it was cute. i added some of the lyrics even tho i think its kinda cringe to do that in a fic. sue me)
> 
> (p.p.s. if ur wondering why im posting this but havent updated my otgw fic in months then just mind your business)


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